The water is coming. Leave now and help us get your stuff out of harm's way is the message cabin owners at Waldsea Lake got at a public meeting in Humboldt on January 24.
Representatives from the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority (SWA), facing an angry and frustrated crowd of cabin owners from Walsea Lake, farmers, and municipal representatives, laid out plans to get the cabins away from Waldsea Lake before it floods again this spring.
According to Dwayne Rowlett with the SWA, who did most of the talking at the meeting, the record high rainfalls in the fall and the already slightly above average snowfall this winter means that Waldsea Lake will flood again this year. Whether that water comes from Waldsea Lake or Deadmoose Lake doesn't really matter, as the berms protecting the cabins will probably not be high enough to stop the water. As well, the temporary dykes built to prevent Deadmoose from flowing back into Waldsea will likely fail this year as well, Rowlett noted.
Also contributing to the rising water levels is the order from the federal Department of Environment forcing the closure of the culvert under Grid 777, stopping the flow of water from Houghton Lake into Lenore Lake, the natural flow for the water. While the SWA is challenging the order, they are also complying with it. According to Rowlett, a decision on the closure probably won't be forthcoming until after the spring runoff.
These factors have forced the SWA to consider if it is worthwhile to keep protecting the cabins and the park. Since the lake first flooded in 2007, the province has spent several million dollars building berms, removing cabins, raising the level of the land at the lake, and helping cabin owners rebuild their properties.
Now, though, the SWA and the province have reached the conclusion that it is no longer economically feasible or realistic to protect the cabins and the park, Rowlett stated.
Upgrading and maintaining the berms would cost around $7 million at Waldsea Lake and another $12 million at Deadmoose Lake on top of what has already been spent, he explained. Even if they did raise the berms again - they were raised three times last year - there is no guarantee that the water won't continue to rise, forcing even more to be spent on protecting the cabins.
The cost of the solution is greater than the value of the development, Rowlett said.
The second option and the one chosen by the province is the decommissioning of Waldsea Lake Regional Park (WLRP), he explained. The decommissioning of the park will be part of a larger project to allow water from Deadmoose and Houghton lakes to run into Waldsea in an attempt to prevent more flooding of agricultural land around those two lakes.
As part of the decommissioning of the park, the SWA is offering cottage owners two options for compensation.
First, the SWA will move their cottages to any location within 100 kilometres of Waldsea Lake, including pick-up and set-down costs. As well, the SWA will find a place to store the cabins while the owners search for another site, Rowlett explained.
The second option is for cabin owners to leave their cabins and receive 50 per cent of the pre-flood SAMA assessment value (2006) for their existing cabin. No compensation would be provided for the value of the lot, for which cottage owners have 99-year leases.
The province would also pay a percentage of the redevelopment costs incurred since 2007, including such things as lifting cabins and filling lots.
The province would also be responsible for the removal and demolition of existing buildings at the park and undertake an environmental cleanup of the park, Rowlett explained.
There were several questions from the audience about the assessment of cabins, many of which have been replaced since they were destroyed in the 2007 flooding.
Rowlett admitted that there were still details in the compensation plan to be worked out and that just because cabin owners selected one of the two compensation options, didn't mean that they were signing off on any other claims in the future.
Cabin owners and the park board have until February 15 to make a decision on whether they want to move their cabins, as the SWA wants everything moved while the ground is still frozen and before water starts flowing, Rowlett said. While that isn't a very long time to make such an important decision, Rowlett reiterated that by selecting one of the options, cottage owners weren't closing the door on future claims to compensation.
As well, the SWA is afraid that rising water will cut off the park from the outside, as the grid road leading to the park may be under water shortly after runoff begins to flow.
One of the biggest sticking points for many people at the meeting was that they wouldn't get compensated for their lots, even though they paid money for the lease. Rowlett said they would take that back to the cabinet table, but didn't offer any promises on a change to the proposed policy.
"The timelines are extremely challenging," Rowlett admitted. "If the road goes and there is no access to the park, there is nothing we can do. Are we scrambling? Absolutely. But we don't want to see people go through what they went through in 2007. The consequences of not doing something is intense."
The SWA believes that if the work isn't done by April 5, it may be too late to move cabins as the spring runoff starts.
After the meeting, Naomi Ramsay, chair of the Waldsea Lake cabin owners association, was still upset about the decision.
"The deal isn't good enough," she said. "They want us to sign off, but we do not know what we're signing off on."
According to a tax notice issued in 2007, the cabins and land at Waldsea were valued at over $4 million, Ramsay noted.
Ramsay expects that her family will opt to move their cabin out, but isn't sure where they will go after that.
"We won't be moving it to another lake, it's not affordable," she stated.
The loss of the park and the lake is a devastating one, not just to the cabin owners, but to the region, Ramsay said.
"Development started at Waldsea in 1912, it would have been the 100th anniversary next year and it's gone," she stated. "It's very sad."
In a news release issued on January 25, the province called the closure of the park a "balanced solution."
"It is unfortunate to see the end of a valued resort community, but this offers families a chance to move to an area they can enjoy without the threat of being flooded," said Dustin Duncan, Environment minister, in the release.
The press release also pointed out that Waldsea Lake is a closed basin and has no outlet, which will keep the risk of flooding high for several years.
